Analyzing Symbols in the Catcher in the Rye

The road to redemption is a long and uncomfortable one. In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, Amir’s journey is much the same as he tries to find freedom and redemption from his guilt and the unatoned sins of his past. The inner turmoil he faces forces him to come to grips with the years of guilt he has suffered. Amir’s desire for redemption and forgiveness for his sins allows him to mature both mentally and emotionally and accept the society he now lives in. The factors leading to his redemption are the mending his relationship with his father, the rescue of Hassan’s son Sorahb, and his final confrontation with Aseef.

Like father like son - this is never the case with Amir and Baba, their different interests and Amir’s lack of masculinity causes him to think that Baba will never be proud of him. Even his kite tournament was a victory short lived with Baba as it soon fades. The only time Baba is genuinely proud of Amir is when he graduates from high school in America: He walked to me, curled his arm around my neck and gave my brow a single kiss. I am moftakhir Amir, proud. His eyes gleamed when he said that, and I liked being on that receiving end of that look. (Hosseini 139). This allows Amir to mature mentally. It gives him a sense of relief and redemption that his father’s love is unconditional regardless of their dissimilar interests and beliefs. It also encourages Amir to pursue his desires while not lacking the love of his father.

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Symbols in The Catcher in the Rye
In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger many symbols are used to show a deeper meaning for the people, objects and places Holden Caulfield comes in contact with during the story. Holden is often unable to connect to or make relationships with other people, and his encounters usually end with him alone and feeling insecure. Holden deals with these insecurities by looking for the phoniness in others. But his failures are something that he cannot truly run from, no matter how often he tries. Holden sees the innocence of childhood and dreams of protecting that innocence by being a catcher in the rye. But sooner or later Holden will realize that eventually children grow up. In The Catcher in the Rye three symbols that have significant meanings and contributions to the story as a whole are Holden erasing profanity, the museum, and the red hunting hat.
The first symbol is Holden erasing profanity off the school wall. This act symbolizes his realization that he can’t protect children forever. Holden sees “f- you” written on the walls of Phoebe’s school and thinks about “… how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it…” (201). When Holden erases the profanity he has protected the children’s innocence, like he’s always wanted to do. But he then comes across...

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English 10 HP
October 25, 2013
Rough Draft Compare and Contrast Essay
Holden Caulfield and Jay Gatsby external appearance would lead one to believe that they are just ordinary. Holden is the protagonist from J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and his outward features would suggest that he is a typical sixteen year old boy, but in reality there is much more than meets the eye. He deceitful, reserved, and a critical human being with a complicated past that explains why he became this way. Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby also has a complex past that made him keep to himself until he meet his new neighbor Nick Carraway. Who he shares his thoughts and feelings with, even though his rumors and lifestyle would concluded that he isn’t what most people had thought of him, most people don’t know that he was poor and given the opportunity to become wealthy. Both Gatsby and Holden have various similarities, they are reserved, deceivers, and are intelligent, some qualities standout more than others, but throughout both novels these traits tend to be the most common. Nick Carraway became Gatsby friend and allowed him to express his feelings, unlike Holden who keeps his feeling bottled up, until the end of the novel.
The external appearance of both characters would lead one to suggest they isn’t anything wrong with either person. Gatsby has his wealth and luxury as a safeguard so it harder to tell he is emotional person while...

...English 12 IB September 16th, 2011
Symbols in The Catcher in the Rye
The Red Hunting Hat
Holden's Red hunting hat is a symbol of his uniqueness throughout the book. It is a concrete representation of his alienation from “common” people as it looks very peculiar, and thus makes him stand out when he wears it. This represents Holden's desire to stand apart from all the “phonies” of the world. However, the fact that Holden refuses to wear the hat while in the presence of people he knows is a representation of his need for acceptance, despite all he says about his indifference regarding what other people think about him. This means that the hunting hat is a representation of the main conflict in the book, which is that Holden has to balance his need for freedom and isolation with his desire for social relations.
The Ducks
The ducks of the Central Park Pond are often cited as a major symbol in The Catcher in the Rye. This is because their behaviour is easy to relate to for Holden. Indeed, wen the ducks feel the winter is coming, they persevere in the harsher conditions of life at the pond until there comes a point where leaving to a more suitable location becomes necessary. This is the point in life where Holden is at the moment the story takes place. He faces difficulties in his environment and thus has the strong desire to leave to a better...

...Catcher in the RyeSymbols
The Symbol of Allie in the book Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger is very important. Allie links to the theme of being able to stay young and carefree forever. Due to the fact that Allie died as a child he no longer can grow up and he does not have to face the problems that come along with it. Holden’s view of Allie starts out as Holden not being able to accept his death. His view of Allie changes into him accepting the death and realizing that Allie can never come back. Allie represents not having to deal with the problems and decisions of the adult world.
When Holden first talks about his Brother Allie’s death, he starts to talk about how Allie was the nicest most intelligent one. He talks about how Allie’s baseball mitt “had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere” (38). Allie writing the poems on his glove so he has something to read in the outfield shows that Allie was just being a kid. He was being carefree; he wrote the poems on the glove so he would keep from being bored. Holden also thinks of Allie when Sonny leaves. He starts to think of a time when they were just kids when he would not let Allie come to Bobby Fallon’s house with him. Holden then starts to talk to Allie telling him to “get your bike and meet me in front of Bobby’s house” (99). He says that he thinks about it whenever he becomes extremely depressed....

...in this world they can share their thoughts and emotions with. Whether it is a best friend, a co-worker, or even God…someone to talk to is sometimes the only cure to the things you are feeling inside. In the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield’s person to talk to, or “confidante”, is his little sister Phoebe Caulfield. At the beginning of the novel Holden describes Phoebe as extremely smart and funny, but as the book progresses her significance in the work progresses too. Much of Phoebe’s life is used symbolically and vicariously of Holden’s at her age. The most important part of the novel is the closing scene when Phoebe is on the merry-go-round. The three symbols used in this final scene (the rain, Holden’s hunting hat, and the merry-go-round itself) all directly correspond to the overall theme of the book.
Phoebe’s character is brought up in many important scenes throughout the novel. Because she is Holden’s confidante, Phoebe is the one person Holden has left to trust with everything. The symbolism used in the final passage of the novel is much deeper than the reader would think. Holden explains himself watching one of the most important people in his life simply go around and round on a merry-go-round in the pouring rain. The symbol of rain has appeared many times throughout the book. . One of the most ironic things about this scene with the rain is that it is almost identical to when...

...statement: The relationship Holden and Blanche have between family and people in society leads them to an inner turmoil, which eventually results in their psychological breakdowns.
I. Family
A. Positive relationships in The Catcher in the Rye.
1. Phoebe is the only person who Holden needs
2. Holden is proud of D.B's accomplishments
3. Holden truly admires the personality Allie had
a.) "He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty more times intelligent" (38).
B. Positive relationships in A Streetcar Named Desire.
1. Stella and Blanche are very close, telling each other everything
2. Stella takes Blanche in when she has nowhere else to stay
3. Blanche wants Stella to escape from Stanley
a.) "Animal habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one!"(72)
C. Negative relationships in The Catcher in the Rye.
1. Holden gets angry when his family/siblings do something he does not like
2. Holden does not get along with his parents
a.) "Daddy'll kill you"(166)
3. Holden thinks D.B has turned into a phony
D. Negative relationships in A Streetcar Named Desire.
1. Blanche flirts with Stella's husband, Stanley
2. Blanche makes fun of Stella's lifestyle
II. Society
A. Role in society in The Catcher in the Rye.
1. Holden despises when people refer to him as a minor.
a.) "The waiter came up a Scotch and a soda for myself, but the sonuvabitch...

...﻿Kenia Rodriguez
Ms.Ansolabehere
English 3 Honors, 7
October 19, 2014
Alienation at its Finest
The teenage years are some of the most stressful and complicated moments of life even though some adults may not remember. In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist Holden Caulfield struggles with himself on trying to connect with someone in New York and deals with situations that most teenagers go through. By alienating himself, Holden Caulfield is a confused male who complicates himself by not knowing what to do in life. Holden Caulfield faces many problems that all relate to him in a way. Holden’s red hunting hat reveals his sympathy within himself and his surroundings. Not only does the red hunting hat describe Holden, but there is a connection made between history and people. To Holden, The Museum of Natural History represents consistency. Everyone wonders what will life be like once graduating high school but almost everyone has an idea of where to. The ducks in the lagoon in Central Park make Holden question himself; where he will end up in life? It is obvious that all these symbols have to do something with Holden’s actions and way of thinking. Salinger uses the symbols of the red hunting hat, the Museum of Natural History, and the ducks on the lagoon in Central Park to convey Holden’s alienation.
The red hunting hat is a remembrance of Allie and makes Holden’s way of feeling safe. For...

....Jean Dee Nell
In his novel, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger tells the story of Holden Caulfield, a troubled and confused sixteen year old boy. During his three day journey through New York City, Holden attempts to put events from his past aside so that he can try and live a normal life by trying to be an adult. Holden wants to live on his own like an adult. He wants to be independent and support himself. In telling this story, Salinger wants us to understand that it is important to be the person you are and not try to be something you are not.
When Holden plays the role of an adult, rather than lives the life of a sixteen year old, things go wrong. One example of this in the story is when Holden arranges to get a prostitute from Maurice the elevator man at the hotel. This is out of character for Holden, who is normally a shy person and one who normally treats women respectfully. Sixteen year old teenagers do not normally hire prostitutes. Things go wrong for Holden when Maurice and Sunny claim Holden owed them five dollars more. When Holden refused to pay, Maurice punched Holden in the stomach and took the money. This shows a good example of how things go wrong if Holden tries to act someone he is not.
Holden drinks even though only adults are allowed to drink. Holden explains that due to his height and his gray hair, he is often able to order alcohol. This is another example of how Holden tries to act like an adult but in this case...